Category: SciFi

January 2018
This is the large (40cm long) 1/72 Revell Millennium Falcon Easy Kit, kit 06694
The kit has relatively few parts and is designed to hold together without glue; parts are relatively thick but reasonably detailed. Details are pre-painted so that the model can be built quickly without any additional finishing
There is an in-box review with good sprue shots at: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234992569-star-wars-the-force-awakens-millennium-falcon-172-revell-easy-kit/
I can’t justify the £300+ for the Fine Molds version or indeed the forthcoming Bandai one which I gather will come in at similar price. Stunning as those kits may be, £29 for this version (£60 RRP) seemed like a good compromise after watching Last Jedi
Originally released a few years back as an ‘Original Trilogy’ version, this kit has additional parts for the rectangular radar dish from Force Awakens together with slightly different undercarriage and access ramp but the original parts are also included.
The kit goes together quickly, plan was to leave main ship parts unpainted other than a coat of Matt Varnish before weathering but the pre-painted side panels were very different in tone so decided to paint everything.
Cockpit is basic but thick glasswork makes it hard to see anyway, I modified some Airfix pilots to make a crude Han and Chewbacca for a bit of fun.
To avoid a see-through look to the hull I added plastic card squares, coloured black with a sharpie, over the gun position windows top and bottom.
The blue painted (on rear) clear engine part was installed and masked with Tamiya Tamiya paint for protection against both scratches and paint.
I used the newer ‘Force Awakens’ undercarriage parts as they seemed more detailed and made an extra radar dish mounting (copying kit part) so that I could use both parts and swap them around. I assembled everything other than the undercarriage doors, guns and radar dishes then masked the clear parts with Humbrol Maskol ready for painting.
Lifecolor FS 36440 Light Gull Grey was airbrushed all over, when dry a coat of MIG Ammo matt varnish added extra protection. Red, grey and yellow panels were brush painted back on (using pictures of the pre-painted kit parts as reference along with a copy of Fine Molds kit instructions I found on Internet.
When all this was dry, I used Vallejo acrylic washes (Light Grey primarily, with Dark Grey and\or White wash mixed in for variation) to weather the ship.
Maskol removed, all finished
More Work In Progress pictures here: https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=cjhm%20%20%23REVELL%20MILLENNIUMFALCON&src=typd&lang=en
Was a relatively quick and very fun build, only problem now is that it’s too big for display cabinet !

Finished this a short while ago, it’s the great Bandai kit.
Engineering of the ‘friction fit’ parts is superb, used Tamiya Extra Thin Cement sparingly more because I thought I ought to rather than having to.
I left the plastic bare, airbushed gloss using Tamiya acrylic, then decals followed by Tamiya Matt to finish. Weathering was Vallejo Dark and Light Grey washes plus some Games Workshop wash too
WIP Here: https://twitter.com/search?q=cjhm%20bandai%20x%20wing&src=typd
Great fun, hope you enjoy.

This is Airfix kit I built 6ish years ago as first effort on return to modelling after ‘children break’, inspired by the 40th Anniversary TV programs and a trip to Leicester Space Centre.
Kit instructions from 1990s release were rubbish as a painting reference, found some excellent resources on the internet though
Painted with ‘craft’ acrylics; gold foil from Rollos (a lot of research went into finding the right confectionery to provide the foil ….)
More here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/75999-apollo-11/

Think this is done, may try and black out some of areas between the pipework which should be open but here goes for now.
It’s the Round 2 Models re-release of the MPC kit from the 1970s
I know the purists knock it but it looks like an Eagle to me and was fun to do; the Eagle is near the top of my favourite Gerry Anderson ships (more here:https://en.wikipedia…gle_Transporter)
It built up quickly,I left the landing pads, ‘fuel cells’ and engines off for main painting.
White was Humbrol 22 Acrylic rattle can, when dry the decals went on which were a bit brittle but seemed to settle down OK. The ones for the pod windows didn’t sit well so I used a fine permanent marker instead.
Army Painter Matt Varnish rattle can sealed it all down then I picked out panels etc with Vallejo acrylic light grey wash (nice stuff, thinner than Citadel\Games Workshop washes and it flowed like an enamel wash)
Base is a cheap picture frame with plastic card painted to look like pictures from the net of the landing pad. This was painted with red primer rattle can then I airbrushed the black and grey using a hand help cardboard mask with bits cut out of it. Lights are white LEDs bodged together with some wire and resistors from spares box. I’m quite chuffed with the base if you don’t look to hard at the alignment of the patches and lines ….

Think this is done, may try and black out some of areas between the pipework which should be open but here goes for now.
It’s the Round 2 Models re-release of the MPC kit from the 1970s
I know the purists knock it but it looks like an Eagle to me and was fun to do; the Eagle is near the top of my favourite Gerry Anderson ships (more here:https://en.wikipedia…gle_Transporter)
It built up quickly,I left the landing pads, ‘fuel cells’ and engines off for main painting.
White was Humbrol 22 Acrylic rattle can, when dry the decals went on which were a bit brittle but seemed to settle down OK. The ones for the pod windows didn’t sit well so I used a fine permanent marker instead.
Army Painter Matt Varnish rattle can sealed it all down then I picked out panels etc with Vallejo acrylic light grey wash (nice stuff, thinner than Citadel\Games Workshop washes and it flowed like an enamel wash)
Base is a cheap picture frame with plastic card painted to look like pictures from the net of the landing pad. This was painted with red primer rattle can then I airbrushed the black and grey using a hand help cardboard mask with bits cut out of it. Lights are white LEDs bodged together with some wire and resistors from spares box. I’m quite chuffed with the base if you don’t look to hard at the alignment of the patches and lines ….

Think this is done, may try and black out some of areas between the pipework which should be open but here goes for now.
It’s the Round 2 Models re-release of the MPC kit from the 1970s
I know the purists knock it but it looks like an Eagle to me and was fun to do; the Eagle is near the top of my favourite Gerry Anderson ships (more here:https://en.wikipedia…gle_Transporter)
It built up quickly,I left the landing pads, ‘fuel cells’ and engines off for main painting.
White was Humbrol 22 Acrylic rattle can, when dry the decals went on which were a bit brittle but seemed to settle down OK. The ones for the pod windows didn’t sit well so I used a fine permanent marker instead.
Army Painter Matt Varnish rattle can sealed it all down then I picked out panels etc with Vallejo acrylic light grey wash (nice stuff, thinner than Citadel\Games Workshop washes and it flowed like an enamel wash)
Base is a cheap picture frame with plastic card painted to look like pictures from the net of the landing pad. This was painted with red primer rattle can then I airbrushed the black and grey using a hand help cardboard mask with bits cut out of it. Lights are white LEDs bodged together with some wire and resistors from spares box. I’m quite chuffed with the base if you don’t look to hard at the alignment of the patches and lines ….

Think this is done, may try and black out some of areas between the pipework which should be open but here goes for now.
It’s the Round 2 Models re-release of the MPC kit from the 1970s
I know the purists knock it but it looks like an Eagle to me and was fun to do; the Eagle is near the top of my favourite Gerry Anderson ships (more here:https://en.wikipedia…gle_Transporter)
It built up quickly,I left the landing pads, ‘fuel cells’ and engines off for main painting.
White was Humbrol 22 Acrylic rattle can, when dry the decals went on which were a bit brittle but seemed to settle down OK. The ones for the pod windows didn’t sit well so I used a fine permanent marker instead.
Army Painter Matt Varnish rattle can sealed it all down then I picked out panels etc with Vallejo acrylic light grey wash (nice stuff, thinner than Citadel\Games Workshop washes and it flowed like an enamel wash)
Base is a cheap picture frame with plastic card painted to look like pictures from the net of the landing pad. This was painted with red primer rattle can then I airbrushed the black and grey using a hand help cardboard mask with bits cut out of it. Lights are white LEDs bodged together with some wire and resistors from spares box. I’m quite chuffed with the base if you don’t look to hard at the alignment of the patches and lines ….

With the release of Star Wars Force Awakens thought I would share this build from 2011
Model is ‘from the box’, Fine Molds use quite a hard plastic and the kit is superbly engineered which made for a nice project
Brush painted with Lifecolor and CitadelGames Workshop acrylics plus MIG Enamel washes
More here from the time: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/78812-fine-molds-172-star-wars-x-wing/
I see Bandai do a ‘Force Awakens’ version in 1/72 so may have to get one of those, off to see the film at IMAX this Saturday – can’t wait

Finished this back in 2011, I picked up this Airfix kit in a Modelzone sale a few years before they went out of business.
Finished in Lifecolor plus the Humbrol acrylics that came with kit and some CitadelGW, all brush painted
Doctors suit is non-specular blue with stripes hand drawn using an old fashioned bow pen in Azure Blue followed by blue wash to tone down, tried many ways unsuccessfully before trying this and was pleased with result, gather you can get masks to easily do the stripes now. Tie and Converse were detailed by brush.